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UT3 Won't Feature Cross Play Capability

Posted by Zonk on from the stick-to-your-roots dept.

Next Generation is reporting on comments from Epic's Mark Rein, who participated in an IRC chat with some members of the Unreal community recently. In the chat, Rein revealed that Unreal Tournament 3 will not feature the ability for PS3 and PC players to compete on the same servers. Said Rein, "We looked at how this would impact our ability to respond quickly to things happening at internet speed on the PC side of the equation and realized that this would not be in the best interests of our very loyal PC userbase because we would constantly be holding on to updates to wait until they passed cert on the console platform. Our PC fanbase is of ultimate importance to us. They are our bread and butter. We can't let them down or compromise their experience in any way to accommodate cross platform play."

4 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What?!? by Necreia · · Score: 5, Informative

    PC patches don't require Sony's blessing-- that's the deal with it.

  2. Let's not forget... by Locriology · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...that PS3 UT3 players are not limited to the SIXAXIS controller. So there will still be keyboard-over-controller domination.

  3. Re:What?!? by LinuxGeek · · Score: 4, Informative

    I thought it was more widely known that the PS3 version will support keyboard and mouse play. One of the reasons I finally bought a console for gaming.

    --

    Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
  4. Re:What?!? by DarkMantle · · Score: 4, Informative

    OK, I've been following the UT3 development as closely as I can since UT 2004 came out. Now Let me summarize what I've read/heard/watched on several interviews and blogs (with Epic Employees.)

    • Cross platform play is dropped for above stated reason. It works fine in the development lab but Sony must "bless" the patch before release and for the PC once it passes Epics testing it's good.
    • 360 is delayed because of limitations of XBOX Live. On PC and PS3 custom maps can be downloaded from the host server. 360 only allows downloads from Live download servers, so it needs Microsoft's "blessing"
    • Dedicated servers for PS3 will run on any standard PC, so you can host the server on a PC for your friends to play on even if you're PS3 is off. (this should also be true for 360, but was not commented on)
    • The requirements for PC and PS3 dedicated servers has not increased much since UT2Kx, but the map textures and meshes have more detail so more RAM is recommended
    • PS3 version of UT3 will support Keyboard and mouse. (I've not heard about 360 version support)
    • I repeat. Cross platform play works in the dev lab so It's due to patch certifications that they are not allowing it.

    That said, Epic has a history of listening to the community, raise a stink on the forums and they may add it in a patch. Also If you post about the different version restrictions, it's similar to UT2Kx where if I'm running a certain version server, and you have a different client we can't connect, so It is a valid idea.

    If microsoft Live servers weren't so restricted all 3 platforms would launch at the same time. If you're a console gamer and want to make maps, then you will need to buy the PC version as well as your console version. IIRC you will be able to browse UT3 download sites for maps to directly on the PS3, but I may be wrong on that part.

    --
    DarkMantle I been bored, so I started a blog.